Traditional or Co-op, Tips To Get The Best Performance From Your List

* Look for stability within your list. Data must be provided in a consistent formula from your broker. Lebo advises that when buying a list for factors such as recency, frequency or monetary data, make sure these factors are not revised or switched without your knowledge.

She cites a cataloger that was given a list of names based on data that was totally different from the data it had requested. It had unknowingly received the wrong names, and the cataloger went ahead with its mailing campaign. As a result, it was unsuccessful.

Schultz asserts that mailers need to be aware of the data they’re getting from their broker. “Inconsistency is much greater in co-ops vs. traditional lists,” he says.

Adds Wiland: “Co-ops don’t have the knowledge to look for other places to find data. We receive data that arrives mapped differently, making it much more difficult to understand. We emphasize stability. We don’t always get it, but that’s our goal.”

Despite co-op databases overwhelming popularity among consumer catalogers, the panel agreed that traditional vertical lists still hold value.